Are your breasts dense? Here’s why you need to know

"Look it’s not great news. Mum's mammogram came back and they found a lump they think is malignant. There's also a shadow on the lymph gland on her armpit."

I don't think I heard much else. I immediately jumped to the cancer conclusion and was working out how I could juggle work and flying home to Queensland regularly as she undertook chemo.

Luckily it was a false alarm and although it looked bad, there was no cancer. She still had surgery to remove it. As the fabulous female breast surgeon said, "With nasty looking lumps like that, the only place for them in is the bin!"

We celebrated by going out for dinner but a wave of relief and exhaustion hit us and we were home and in bed by 9:30pm.

Our family was lucky.

Related: Krystal Barter speaks on starting Pink Hope

It was about then that the timing of it all struck me. Just a few weeks before I had been asked by Pink Hope to be an ambassador for their latest campaign "Don't be dense, know your breast density."

I'm embarrassed to say, when they said breast density; I didn't know what that even meant.

I guess I'd been blasé about my boob checks because we have no family history.

Mum’s scare changed that.

I did a self-exam and found three lumps in a row in my right breast. My doctor booked me in for a 3D mammogram and ultrasound.

I wasn't too worried because every woman in my family has big, lumpy breasts and yet no history of cancer. But walking in to the Sydney Breast Clinic you can't help but think of the ‘what ifs’. The waiting room was busy with anxious women and many ash-faced husbands. Well except for one guy who was asleep in his chair and snoring loudly. That’s support – man style.

Anyway I went in to the examination room and stripped to the waist. I've had two other mammograms so I knew what to expect. At my first mammogram I was chuffed when the radiologist saw my boobs and said, "We're going to need a bigger plate."

This time I had the 3D mammogram. I’m sorry to say your boobs still get squished into pancakes until it takes your breath away but at least it's quick. I swear if blokes had to be tested by having their balls flattened between plastic they would have invented an alternative decades ago.

But I'd rather a bit of discomfort than the fear of not knowing. Thankfully my lumps were nothing to be worried about. I had a strange feeling of vindication that they were lumps. Because one time I had a mammogram for what I thought was a massive lump but it turned out to be my rib. Oops.

So it was time to find out about my breast density. With big lumpy cans like mine I would have bet the house that they were dense.

Nope. That’s the thing; you can’t pick it from looking at or feeling your boobs. You have to have a mammogram.

Breasts are made up of three types of tissue – fatty, fibrous and glandular tissue. Every woman is unique and has a different amount of each. A woman with dense breasts has less fatty tissue and more glandular and fibrous tissue.

Becoming aware of your breast density can be vital for you. Since having dense breasts can actually obscure a lump on a standard mammogram.

Let me put it this way, imagine dense breast tissue as clouds in the sky and breast cancers as white planes in flight. When a plane flies through wispy clouds, you can still see the plane in the air, but when a plane flies through thick clouds, it can be nearly impossible to visually detect.

Women with dense breasts have a four to five times increased risk of breast cancer compared with women with average breast density. But hardly any of them know it. All you have to do it ask.

Next time you’re due for a mammogram, ask your doctor for a 3D mammogram so you know if you have dense breast tissue or not. It could save your life.

Also I urge you to use the Pink Hope #knowyourrisk tool and educate yourself. Take charge of your own health. Don't wait for something to go wrong.

I will no longer be blasé about my boobs. It think they’re awesome so I plan to look after them.

I hope my experience will encourage other women to take charge of their breast health too.